November 18

1908 Adolf Hitler moves out of his flat, leaves no forwarding address, and doesn't speak to his friend Kubizek again until March 1938. Police records show Hitler moved to new lodgings on the Felberstrasse only a few blocks away. He will live at this new address from November 18, 1908 to August 20, 1909.

1915 Genocide: From Talaat Pasha's Official Orders Regarding the Armenian Massacres:

It appears, from the interventions which have recently been made by the American Ambassador [Note: Mr. Morgenthau] at Constantinople on behalf of his Government, that the American Consuls are obtaining information by some secret means. They remain unconvinced, despite our assurance that the deportations will be accomplished in safety and comfort. Be careful that events which attract attention shall not occur in connection with those who are near cities and other centres. In view of our present policy, it is most important that foreigners who are in those parts shall be convinced that the expulsion of the Armenians is in reality only deportation. Therefore it is necessary that a show of gentle dealing shall be made for a while, and the usual measures be taken in suitable places. All persons who have given information to the contrary shall be arrested and handed over to the military authorities for trial by court-martial. This order is recommended as very important.

1916 World War I: Various:

Battle of the Somme: General Douglas Haig halts the first Battle of the Somme in Europe after five months of futile battle, which included the first use of tanks in battle. The Allied advance of just 125 square miles claims 420,000 British and 195,000 French casualties. German losses are over 650,000.

The battle, which began on July 1st with infantry charges, lasted in all four and a half months; that is, until November 18th. It may chronologically be divided into several parts. The first comprised the period July 1st-5th. The attack was begun by one and a half French corps under General Michelet, advancing south of the Somme; by one corps north of the river commanded by General Fayolle; at Maricourt and in touch with the French stood the right wing of the English, the fourth army (consisting of five corps) here moving forward to the attack under General Rawlinson. While on July 1st the first German line was taken south of the Somme by the French, who also advanced north of that river as far as Hardecourt-Curlu, the attack of the English on both sides of the Ancre did not go forward very well. Already by July 2nd the combined attack of the enemy forces resolved itself into single engagements.

Appeal of Belgian Women's Societies Sent to US Ambassador to Belgium:

From the depths of our well of misery our supplication rises to you. In addressing ourselves to you, we denounce to your Government, as well as to our sisters, the women of the nation which you represent in our midst, the criminal abuse of force of which our unhappy and defenceless people is a victim. Since the beginning of this atrocious war we have looked on impotently and with our hearts torn with every sorrow at terrible events which put our civilization back into the ages of the barbarian hordes.

1918 Nov-Dec: Gefreiter Adolf Hitler—still in the army—returns to Munich for duty with the 2nd Infantry Regiment. In a letter written three years later, Hitler will write that he had returned to Munich on December 18, but may have confused this date with the date of his transfer to Traunstein. (See December 18, 1918 and Hitler letter: November 29, 1921) Note: Several months after Hitler became Chancellor in 1933, Baron Rudolf Sebottendorff, Grand Master of the Thule Society in Munich, published a book entitled Before Hitler Came: The early years of the Nazi Party. It states:

Thule members were the people to whom Hitler first turned, and who first allied themselves with Hitler. The armament of the coming Fuehrer consisted of--besides the Thule Society itself --the Deutscher Arbeiterverein, founded in the Thule by Brother Karl Harrer at Munich, and the Deutsch-Sozialistche Partei, headed there by Hans Georg Grassinger, whose organ was the Muenchener Beobachter, later to be renamed the Voelkischer Beobachter. From these three sources Hitler created the Nationalsozialistischen Arbeiterpartei.

1918 Baltics: The Latvian National Council proclaims the independent Republic of Latvia, with Janis Cakste as president.

1935 Ethiopia Economic sanctions imposed on Italy by the League of Nations for its invasion of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) take effect:

The League of Nations condemned Italy's aggression and imposed economic sanctions in November 1935, but the sanctions were largely ineffective since they did not ban the sale of oil or close the Suez Canal (controlled by Britain). As Stanley Baldwin, the British Prime Minister, later observed, this was ultimately because no one had the military forces on hand to withstand an Italian attack.

1936 Spain: Germany under Adolf Hitler and Italy under Benito Mussolini both recognize General Francisco Franco's provisional government in Spain.

1937 Church and Reich: A catholic official refuses to allow permission for the Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs to consult diocesan files on Jewish conversions and mixed marriages 'on grounds of pastoral secrecy.' Note: Up to this time, the Church had closely cooperated with the government in determining and sorting out those of Jewish descent. It was only when Catholics of Jewish descent were threatened that the Catholic church balked. Yet, even then, they continued disclosing the names of non-Catholics of Jewish extraction right through the war years, when the price of being Jewish was deportation and death.

1938 Various:

Holocaust: The US State Department extends visitor's visas to some 15,000 mostly Jewish refugees already in America, because of Kristallnacht.

The Legislative Assembly of the American Virgin Islands adopts a resolution offering the islands as a haven for Jewish refugees.

Romania: Members of the Iron Guard (Legionaries) blows up the Ereschitza synagogue.

1939 The Irish Republican Army explodes three bombs in Piccadilly Circus.

From an internal Nazi document:

At 3:00 p.m. Reich Minister Dr. Arthur Seyss-Inquart addressed the department heads of the district chief and stated among other things that the chief guiding rule for carrying out German administration in the Government General must be solely the interests of the German Reich. A stem and inflexible administration must make the area of use to German economy; and, so that excessive clemency may be guarded against, the results of the intrusion of the Polish race into German territory must be brought to mind . . . . in accordance with which the administration in the 'Government' must be conducted . . . . The resources and inhabitants of this country would have to be made of service to the Reich, and only within these limits could they prosper. Independent political thought should no longer be allowed to develop. The Vistula area might perhaps be still more important to German destiny than the Rhine. The Minister then gave as a guiding theme to the district leaders: 'We will further everything which is of service to the Reich and will put an end to everything which may harm the Reich.' Dr. Seyss-Inquart then added that the Governor General wished that those men who were fulfilling a task for the Reich here should receive a post with material benefits in keeping with their responsibility and achievements . . . . Cycow is a German village . . . . Reich Minister Dr. Seyss-Inquart made a speech in which he pointed out that the fidelity of these Germans to their nationality now found its justification and reward through the strength of Adolf Hitler . . . . This district with its very marshy character could, according to District Chief Schmidt's deliberations, serve as a reservation for the Jews, a measure which might possibly lead to heavy mortality among the Jews.

1940 World War II: Hitler furious over Italy's debacle in Greece:

On this day in 1940, Adolf Hitler meets with Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano over Mussolini's disastrous invasion of Greece.

Mussolini surprised everyone with a move against Greece; his ally, Hitler, was caught off guard, especially since the Duce had led Hitler to believe he had no such intention. Even Mussolini's own chief of army staff found out about the invasion only after the fact!

Despite being warned off an invasion of Greece by his own generals, despite the lack of preparedness on the part of his military, despite that it would mean getting bogged down in a mountainous country during the rainy season against an army willing to fight tooth and nail to defend its autonomy, Mussolini moved ahead out of sheer hubris, convinced he could defeat the inferior Greeks in a matter of days. He also knew a secret, that millions of lire had been put aside to bribe Greek politicians and generals not to resist the Italian invasion. Whether the money ever made it past the Italian fascist agents delegated with the responsibility is unclear; if it did, it clearly made no difference whatsoever—the Greeks succeeded in pushing the Italian invaders back into Albania after just one week. The Axis power spent the next three months fighting for its life in a defensive battle. To make matters worse, virtually half the Italian fleet at Taranto had been crippled by a British carrier-based attack.

At their meeting in Obersalzberg, Hitler excoriated Ciano for opening an opportunity for the British to enter Greece and establish an airbase in Athens, putting the Brits within striking distance of valuable oil reserves in Romania, which Hitler relied upon for his war machine. It also meant that Hitler would have to divert forces from North Africa, a high strategic priority, to Greece in order to bail Mussolini out. Hitler considered leaving the Italians to fight their own way out of this debacle—possibly even making peace with the Greeks as a way of forestalling an Allied intervention. But Germany would eventually invade, in April 1941, adding Greece to its list of conquests. (History.com)

1941 World War II: Various:

North Africa: Britain opens its second Western Desert offensive in Libya when the Eighth Army advances into Cyrenaica; code-named Operation Crusader.

Countdown to Infamy: Honolulu (Kita) to Tokyo:

1. The warships in Harbor on the 15th Area A: A battleship of the Oklahoma class entered and one tanker left port. Area C.3 warships of the heavy cruiser type were at anchor. 2. On the 17th the Saratoga was not in the harbor. The carrier, Enterprise, or some other vessel was in Area C. Two heavy cruisers of the Chicago class, one of the Pensacola class were tied up at docks "KS". 4 merchant vessels were at anchor in Area D. 3. At 10:00 AM on the morning of the 17th, 8 destroyers were observed entering the Harbor. Their course was as follows: In a single file at a distance of 1,000 metres apart at a speed of 3 knots per hour, they moved into Pearl Harbor. From the entrance of the Harbor though Area B to the buoys in Area C, to which they were moored, they changed course 5 times each time roughly 30 degrees. The elapsed time was one hour, however, one of these destroyers entered Area A after passing the water reservoir on the Eastern side.

Holocaust: Alfred Rosenberg tells German journalists at a confidential briefing that the 'Final Solution' has begun; a 'biological extermination of all Jews in Europe.' No Jew could remain on the continent to the Ural Mountains; they would either be forced beyond the Urals or exterminated. The press was not to write about the extermination in detail, but the reporters could use stock phrases such as the 'definite solution' or the 'total solution of the Jewish question.'

1942 Poland: The Gestapo murders 200 Poles in a prison in Kazimierz Dolny.

1943 World War II: After a lull in the bombings to Berlin, the Allies once again begin to inflict heavy damage. Nightly bombings become regular events.

1970 West Germany and Poland initial a treaty recognizing the Oder-Neisse line as a common border and pledging each other to territorial integrity.

1976 Spain: Parliament approves a bill to establish a democracy after 37 years of dictatorship:

Spain took a major step tonight toward elective democracy as the largely appointed Parliament left by Franco approved general elections for next year and voted itself out of existence.

The action, by a vote of 425 to 59, with 13 abstentions, must still be approved in a referendum, possibly in the third week of December.

The vote, which came two days before the first anniversary of Franco's death, was a stunning victory for Prime Minister Adolfo Suarez, the personal choice of King Juan Carlos and the leader in the slow dismantlement of the dictatorial institutions of Franco Spain. Many had predicted before the vote that it would be close. [For further information, click here]

1996 Volkswagen's "Dream Factory" opens in Resende, Brazil:

On this day in 1996, a revolutionary new Volkswagen factory opens in Resende, Brazil. The million-square-meter Resende factory did not have an ordinary assembly line staffed by Volkswagen workers: In fact, the only people on Volkswagen's payroll were the quality-control supervisors. Independent subcontractors were responsible for putting together every part of the trucks and buses that the factory produced. This process, which Volkswagen called the "modular consortium," reduced the company's labor costs considerably by making them someone else's problem: The company simply purchased its labor from the lowest bidder. Eventually, Volkswagen hoped to export this new system to all of its factories in developing countries. [For further details, Click here.]

Edited by Levi Bookin (Copy editor)
levi.bookin@gmail.com

 


 







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